


An Angel Born

by sweetcarolanne



Category: American Horror Story: Asylum, American Horror Story: Freak Show
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angels, Bechdel Test Pass, Canonical Character Death, F/F, Gen, Innocence, Kissing, Love, Misses Clause Challenge, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Spiritual, Wings, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-02 00:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5227469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcarolanne/pseuds/sweetcarolanne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper leaves the dismal world of Briarcliff behind forever and with the help of Shachath, finds her true destiny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Angel Born

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ariestess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariestess/gifts).



> Dear Ariestess, I saw your prompts and was inspired to write this treat! I hope it is to your liking.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters, they're just playing with me! I am making no money from this so suing is futile!
> 
> Many thanks to my beta who wishes to remain anonymous.

Pepper had known who the woman in black was from the beginning. She had seen her face in a dream the night Salty had died. And she was not afraid, because she could sense that the woman was good and kind, although she felt uncertain and confused as to why this warm and motherly, yet other-worldly, personage had appeared before her at that moment.

“He called you, didn’t he?” asked Pepper. “Salty summoned you with his very heart and soul, because he knew he could not live. I know that now.”

Since the beings from the sky had taken her, it was much more effortless to speak her thoughts aloud. But Pepper was fully aware that this ethereal one she encountered now could have understood her even in her former state. 

“Yes,” said the angel named Shachath. “He called me, and I made it painless and easy for him. He is happy where he is now, with Ma Petite and baby Lucas, and all your loved ones who have passed on. All who are pure in heart, or repentant of past sins, will go to happy places when they die. Just as those who did evil things, and who were without remorse, will not. I never judge them, but that is the way it always works.”

The dark angel did not mention Arthur Arden by name as one of the evildoers, but Pepper knew exactly who she meant. Perhaps she was also speaking of Pepper’s sister and brother-in-law. If anybody deserved a form of hell in this life or in the next, it was those two. And Pepper hoped that Sister Mary Eunice, who had done so much to help her when she had first come to Briarcliff, had been cleansed of the demonic possession and was now happy amongst the pure ones.

“But I did not call you,” said Pepper. “I am not needed to protect Grace and her baby any more, but there is another I watch over now.”

“You are speaking of Jude, I know,” replied Shachath. “I can see how loyal you are to her. But she must find her own pathway towards redemption. It is not your task to lead her there.”

“Because she isn’t Miss Elsa, you mean? I realize that she isn’t,” Pepper told the angel, her eyes lowering a little. “It’s not because she looks like Elsa Mars that I stayed by her side. It’s because she needed a friend. And because I’ve been abandoned so many times. I don’t want to abandon her.”

“Of course you don’t,” the angel answered gently. “I can assure you, she will not be alone. You will not be abandoning her if you come with me.”

“I still didn’t call for you, and I know you come when you are called,” Pepper persisted. Death is not what I want, her eyes were saying as she raised them to Shachath again, but she did not utter the words out loud.

“I was sent for you,” said the angel, and her eyes behind the net veil were tender and compassionate. “There are others of my kind who could have come for you, but sometimes they can terrify the unwary. I came because you have seen me already, and putting an end to former existences is my task. This is not about dying, Pepper, but about leaving life as you know it behind. No more pain, no more abandonment. Heaven needs you, because you are so pure, born untainted.” 

Shachath laid a gentle hand on Pepper’s trembling shoulder, and spoke again, and her voice resonated with tones of unearthly beauty. “You, Pepper, are the innocent one who struck despair into a fiend with your words of sheer truth. The one who was too faultless to be taken into darkness by a fearsome, predatory spirit. My beautiful Pepper, who has never sinned… your nature is already angelic. The children need you to guide and protect them.”

“Which children are these?” asked Pepper, but part of her was beginning to realize what all this meant.

“The ones who are like you once were, or who are like Salty and little Lucas. The precious children who are so often misunderstood and discarded or harmed by the ignorant and the wicked.” Shachath smiled as she saw a spark of light and hope in Pepper’s eyes. “I want to help you, so that you can help them.”

The angel stroked Pepper’s little curling top-knot for a moment, and then stepped away from her, gesturing with one arm at the dismal surroundings that were the walls of the asylum. “Here in this place, Pepper, there is nothing left for you. Your earthly existence is spent in helpless confinement, behind these imprisoning stones. But if you come with me, you will be able to work miracles.”

And Pepper knew deep down in her heart that what the angel said was true. Pepper was wasted in the hopeless environment that was Briarcliff, a place from which she could never be free in her mortal lifetime, although she was innocent of all crimes. Suddenly Pepper was longing for freedom more than she ever had before.

She turned, nodding slowly, tears of relief and happiness beginning to fall, and held out her arms to Shachath.

The angel drew close again, and the delicate aroma of lilies seemed to surround her. Shachath’s careful hands moved slowly up to lift her veil, something she had never done before. Pepper gasped as she was drawn into the most loving of embraces, and Shachath bent to softly and deeply kiss her on the lips.

It was a lover’s kiss, not the affection shown by a mother to her child. A kiss that made Pepper tingle and ache all over with a sweetness she had never felt before. Her skin felt all aglow with a fire that did not sear or burn, but bathed her in the most exquisite light, and as her eyes opened wide and locked with Shachath’s, the power given to her by the kiss lifted her vision beyond the scope of bodily sight. And now, as if she was looking into a mirror from some distance away, she was able to see herself.

As the black wings of Shachath unfurled from her back, so too did Pepper begin to grow wings. From her tiny slender frame there unfolded two equally glorious ones of brilliant sky-blue, the feathers glimmering with a sheen of newness. Her dowdy asylum clothes were gone, and she was clad in a soft gown of sheer white silk that seemed to be threaded with bright silver. 

“An angel born,” Shachath whispered as she drew away reluctantly from Pepper’s lips, and smiled again. Pepper smiled back at her, radiant with heavenly joy.

“We shall fly from here,” Shachath murmured tenderly, and extended her hand to the new-born angel. Pepper gently took it, and together, unseen by any, they rose above the bleak environs of Briarcliff that Pepper was departing from forever. Stone walls seemed to dissolve and melt before them as they flew higher and higher, into the blissful liberation of the skies.


End file.
